


Now Your Mess is Mine

by rhysiana



Series: Samwell Faculty AU [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - College Faculty, M/M, NurseyDex Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7549486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysiana/pseuds/rhysiana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of how Dex and Nursey end up adopting their first daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now Your Mess is Mine

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually a side-fic for the faculty AU storiesfromtheden and I are working on. They'll all end up linked eventually.
> 
> Title from Vance Joy's "Mess is Mine." Characters from _Check, Please!_ by Ngozi Ukazu.

“Derek.”

“Hmmm?” Derek continued to frown down at the poem giving him problems. He’d finally finished his grading and was relishing the chance to give his own work his full attention for once.

“I… I just got an email from Neave.”

“Yeah? How’s she doing?”

“It’s… not that kind of email.”

Will’s somewhat strangled tone finally registered. He looked up, blinking. “What?”

“I think you need to see this.”

***

 _Will_ —

 

_You’re probably going to kill me for doing this over email, but this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever tried to say, and I really don’t think I’d be able to get it out if I tried to say it out loud, so just… promise you’ll read all the way to the end before you respond or call or whatever._

_I know you know how hard it was for me to make the decision to have Siobhan after Luke left me. My advisor, all my grad school friends, hell, half our sibs, all thought I was nuts, but you just told me to do what I felt was right, no matter what, and I appreciated that more than I can say. I hope I let you know that._

_And I don’t regret it! Never! Not for a moment. Siobhan is my heart. Her father may be a faithless coward, but at least he made her possible. And the last three months of watching her grow have been amazing._

_But. (There had to be a but.)_

_Our grant got approved. That ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky, so over the top it would never in a million years get approved multi-year research project grant that I told you about? That one. And while having Siobhan in grad school by myself seemed totally doable when submitting that grant was the next thing to a joke, because by the time I was done with my PhD she’d be ready for school and I could take her wherever I got a job, this changes things. Not doing this fieldwork will break my career. I’m listed as a team lead. This research is important, Will, so important; it’s what I came to this program for. It’s what I want to spend my life doing. I can’t turn it down._

_But I can’t raise an infant on a ship in the middle of the Arctic Ocean._

_So what I’m asking is this:_

_(my hands are shaking so bad now, pls excuse any typos)_

_Will you and Derek take my daughter? I’ve seen how good you both are with all the kids anytime the family gets together. You would be the best parents. You DESERVE to be parents. You are exactly the kind of parents I want Siobhan to have._

_And I don’t mean I want you to take care of her while I’m gone and then I’ll come get her. If you say yes to this, you’ll be raising her for years, and I’d be lucky if I got to see her more than a few times in person. That’s not fair to any of you. I’m asking you to adopt her. Be her real parents._

_Give her what I can’t._

_Please._

_I’m going to stop here. Just… give me a call when you’ve both had a chance to think about it?_

_I love you._

_—Neave_

***

Will watched Derek’s face carefully as he read the email. He could feel his own hands shaking. When Derek finished, he looked up and his eyes widened.

“Baby, hey, Will, breathe! Breathe… it’s okay. God, I’ve never seen you this pale. Just breathe.” Derek knelt in front of Will’s chair and took a few slow, deep breaths for him to mimic. The shock started to recede.

Derek took his hands, and Will could suddenly feel how icy they were in comparison to Derek’s solid warmth. A soothing thumb rubbed lightly over his knuckles.

“You okay?”

“I… yes. I think. But Derek, what she’s offering us… It’s so big.”

“I know.”

“You seem weirdly calm about this. I mean, we’ve never even talked about it, not really. Do you even want kids?”

“Of course I do. Neave’s not wrong about how much I love all your nieces and nephews. And she’s definitely not wrong that you would make an amazing dad.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because we had time. I wasn’t in a hurry. You seemed happy. And adoption by same-sex couples still isn’t easy. I was kind of… waiting for it to come up on its own before I proposed something so stressful.”

“Oh.” The world was starting to seem less distant, more real again. “So… do you want to do it?”

“Yes, I really do.”

The last bit of tightness around Will’s chest disappeared. He smiled. Derek’s answering grin was blinding.

“Let’s call Neave.”

***

Three months later, they all stood together in the judge’s chambers at the courthouse and signed the finalized paperwork. Neave passed Siobhan to her brother so she could pick up the pen. She wiped tears hastily from her cheeks in an effort to keep from blotting the ink, but she smiled when she finished signing.

“You look so natural holding her like that.”

“Well, it’s not like our clan hasn’t given me the chance to practice holding babies,” Will chirped, his attempt at sarcasm rather ruined by the soft smile on his face and the hand smoothing the tiny girl’s bright hair.

Neave held out the pen. “Your turn.”

Will turned to hand Siobhan to Derek. She held out her arms to him eagerly. “Hey there, baby girl,” he said softly, and then laughed as she immediately grabbed a fistful of his curls. “I can see I’m going to have to start wearing my hair up more often with you around.”

Looking at them, his gorgeous husband holding his beautiful niece—no, _their_ beautiful _daughter_ , Will felt like his heart was going to burst. He turned back to the desk and quickly added his own signature.

He grabbed Neave in a huge hug. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair. “Thank you so much.”

She held him equally tightly. “As if you’re not the one doing me the favor.”

Will pulled back and looked at her very seriously, tears on his own cheeks now. “Neave, truly, I cannot begin to tell you what an enormous thing it is you’ve done for us. You’ve completed our family in a way I didn’t even dare think was possible. You’ll always be Siobhan’s mother, but thank you for letting us be her fathers.”

Derek squeezed his shoulder in agreement and then passed the baby back to him so he could gather Neave in a hug of his own. “He’s right, you know,” he murmured to her. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be the poet here, but this, you—I have no words.”

And then he signed, and it was done.

***

The photo of the four of them and the judge was printed, framed, and hung in the middle of their blank foyer wall within two days. They planned to add a lot more.

**Author's Note:**

> *What I think Nursey's hair looks like [here](http://rhysiana.tumblr.com/post/144209849428/so-i-was-thinking-about-dex-going-to-nurseys). That's him at a poetry reading, as viewed from where Dex is sitting, trying to hide his smile behind a coffee cup.
> 
> *Neave is doing a degree in oceanography. She'll be doing climatology research in the Arctic.
> 
> *In case you were wondering, Luke is a grade-A asshole. He and Neave were in grad school and engaged, and she thought they were totally on track, but then he realized she was getting more recognition for her work than he was and his ego couldn't take it. He applied to transfer to a different university without telling her, and when it came through, he was just, "Sorry, I have to think of my future, it's just not going to work out," leaving her in the middle of a PhD program, pregnant and with a broken engagement. And then he got engaged and married to some other woman he met on like day 3 at his new university in less than six months. Like, he was re-engaged and married before Neave's baby was even born. Neave had him terminate parental rights immediately and he has never had any contact with them. Will would 100% punch him in the face if he ever saw him again. Derek would be right behind him. (storiesfromtheden asked me about what was so wrong with Luke over chat after I sent her this story, so I spun this backstory for her in about five minutes, and she said, "Congratulations, you've made me hate a fictional person." Sadly, he's based on people I actually know (of).)


End file.
